People need access to data to make decisions about post-high school experiences, including postsecondary education. Policymakers need to better understand how financial circumstances relate to college enrollment and completion. And students and their families need information about how much financial aid they may have access to for financing their…

For decades, Black students have been disproportionately disciplined in schools at much higher rates than White students and other student groups. In several Southwest school districts this phenomenon manifests as differential application of disciplinary alternative education program (DAEP) referrals for Black students. Zero tolerance policies and…

The Columbus Promise, a place-based tuition-free college program for graduates of Columbus City Schools, was created in 2021 and began granting scholarships to the high school graduating class of 2022. The initial phase of the Columbus Promise is a three-year pilot covering the high school graduating classes of 2022, 2023, and 2024. The overriding…

Eviction may be an important channel for the intergenerational transmission of poverty, and concerns about its effects on children are often raised as a rationale for tenant protection policies. We study how eviction impacts children's home environment, school engagement, educational achievement, and high school completion by assembling new data…

Florida's high school graduation rate is based on the percentage of students who graduated with a standard diploma within four years of their first full year of enrollment in ninth grade in the state. However, adjustments are made to this cohort over time to: (1) add incoming transfer students based on their grade level and year of entry; (2)…

This paper documents the emerging role of education in the well-known decline in US male working hours. An insignificant hours difference between high school and college graduates becomes a significant 2 hours/week advantage for college graduates within a generation. This growing "college hours premium" is confirmed in alternate data.…

This paper investigates the quantitative literacy and reasoning (QLR) of freshmen students pursuing a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-related degree but do not necessarily have a Senior High School (SHS) STEM background. QLR is described as a multi-faceted skill focused on the application of Mathematics and Statistics…

LGBT inclusive sex education is one way to address health disparities that exist between students who identify as LGBT and those who identify as heterosexual and cisgender. This study examined the inclusivity of sex education in Montana's high schools and the challenges faced by teachers in providing sex education that is relevant for LGBT youth.…

High school exit exams are meant to standardize the quality of public high schools and to ensure that students graduate with a set of basic skills and knowledge. Evidence suggests that a common perverse effect of exit exams is an increase in dropout for students who have difficulty passing tests, with a larger effect on minority students. To…

How do some high schools produce graduates that consistently achieve at high levels? Would you believe there's a set of proven strategies that could help you deliver similar impressive results and better prepare students for the world after high school? High schools in the United States face a startling reality: many graduates are unprepared for…

Although the positive relationship between social determinants and college attainment is well established, less is known about how social class specifically relates to the linear and timely completion of postsecondary degrees. In this paper, we empirically examine on-time completion of bachelor's degrees using social class proxies for a national…

A substantial body of research shows that when families can use state-sanctioned funds to pay for private school and other academic experiences, everyone wins. Students graduate high school and attain college degrees at higher rates, schools improve academic achievement and become more diverse, parents are satisfied, and taxpayers save money. A…

This brief examines the experiences of California high school seniors from the graduating class of 2023, offering insights into their preparation, plans, and concerns for college prior to enrollment. Drawing on results from a large-scale survey of seniors, the findings reveal important variation in students' secondary school experiences and their…

In 2010 the American Management Association Critical Skills Survey found that three out of four (75.7 percent) executives believed 21st Century Skills would become more important to organizations as the economy grew toward a global marketplace. The problem to be addressed was how high school teachers in the Midwest were integrating 21st Century…

Using the pull-and-push model as a main theoretical framework, this qualitative interview-based study explores the changes in STEM students' intentions to pursue international mobility in the context of the Russia-Ukraine war and the factors related to students' mobility decisions in the context of geopolitical tensions. The findings suggest that…